Category: Student posts

Where I’m From: Good Ole Rocky Top


Where I’m From: Tennessee – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires;

I’m from rolling hills and misty mountains where bluegrass floats upon the breeze in the lands of Davy Crocket where I climbed barefoot in pine trees

I’m from hunts for fireflies and frogs on warm, summer nights where the smell of sour mash cooking could take you to new heights

I’m from porch sittin’ with PaDan where “He who steals my purse steals trash…”

I’m from Good Ole Rocky top reaching for the Summitt, spending countless hours in the gym swishing shots

I’m from fried chicken and turnip greens where the BBQ is so good yull wanna slap yo mammy

I’m from “bless your heart” and “glory, glory hallelujah” to “shit fire and save matches” and “I’ll be John Brown”

I’m from my Sunday school dresses Mimi stitched on a quilt for me

I’m from what would the Bible say and what will people think to memorizing verses every other week

I’m from campfires with friends slappin’ mosquitos and sippin’ whisky

Though the distance divides me from my life in Tennessee, I’ll never be too far from home with all these fond memories

Since I’ve lived in the same place my entire life, I have experienced a fair amount of difficulty realizing my own cultural identity. I’ve never evaluated why I do things the way I do or what makes me unique from others who didn’t grow up in the same region. This activity helped me significantly. I like the fact that it enabled me to write and to utilize a new form of technology. I feel like HaikuDeck could be used in a variety of ways in an English class. Doing an activity similar to this one where we use a writing sample from class as a prompt to elicit a creative response and to make the content personal could not only be a powerful self reflection for the students, but it could also create a connection and some personal significance with the writing sample.

Run Wild in Missoula Montana

Google Map was easy to use. I think that this would be a good tool to use in the classroom. Students could use this as a way to show the importance of place in their lives. They could combine the map and photos along with text that explains the significance of each area. Sense of place or belonging is a theme that often arises in literature so it could be an interesting interactive ancillary activity to either introduce the topic or expand discussion on the importance of place and the impact that it has on their lives and the lives of others.

Where I’m from- Tyler Thomas


Sitka Spruce tree climbing – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires;

I grew up in the Mendenhall Valley of Juneau, Alaska.  With my first experiment with Haiku Deck, I attempted to give a whimsical series of memories tied together as a story that gives an impression of what it was like to grow up with a rain forest and glacier as a backyard.

Over the years, I have dabbled with poetry typically with a notepad and times a napkin generally chicken scratching some play of words.  Though Haiku Deck challenged me, I found the form changed how I approached the poem and how it interacted with images I could find or couldn’t find.  I only used one image from my own collection of pictures.  With images generated from stock pictures, the story can go beyond my backyard and resonate with imagery of my community and beyond.

It was a nice change of pace to play around with poetry in a new media that is a bit more accessible than my old, notebooks piling dust. With Haiku Deck, I could see how it would make writing poetry more tangible to today’s youth.  It is also a great jumping off point for story boarding and movie making.  This could be a handy, fun tool in the classroom.

My Many Places

I was really excited about this technological storytelling project for multiple reasons. First of all, I love using technology in the classroom to enhance learning and am open to learning about new methods or platforms that can help do so. Also, I liked the idea of creating a visual representation of my experiences living in so many different places. Before we were even set loose to brainstorm and explore the possibilities of our projects, I had an image in my mind of exactly what I wanted.

It wasn’t too much of a learning curve working with MyMaps- I use GoogleMaps often, so I just needed to learn how to add markers to my searched locations and then add pictures to the markers. I was excited to use personal photos of me and my family, and I learned how to collect the photo’s link in order to upload that to my marked spots.

The videos provided by our professor answered many of the questions I had. I appreciated having the visual process to guide me through the steps, and I rewinded and fast-forwarded when needed, allowing me to move at my own pace.

I watched the videos to learn how to embed my Google Maps journey in this post and am proud to share it with the public. Please enjoy the tour of my many homes!

Place- Douglas Island

This is a walking tour of downtown South Douglas Island. I grew up on “the island” as my mom calls it. My old house is spot “D” on the walking tour and I found a google image of it before it was torn down. Today, all that exists in that spot is gravel. From the tour you can see some of my favorite childhood places to explore and some more recent places that I’ve discovered as an adult. When available, I added both historical and contemporary photographs to the locations. One of the beautiful parts about Douglas is the history that exists there. I included locations that are important to my own personal history like: my former home, my elementary school, the site of my dad’s art studio where I learned to paint, my favorite garden spots, and some of my current Girl Scout Troop’s favorite field trip spots. I also included some points of cultural and historical significance like: the Douglas Reservoir and Dam, the Alaska Native Cemetery, the Treadwell mine “New Office Building,” Mt. Jumbo Gym (former school), and the Glory Hole (part of the mine). The Glory Hole Mine Ruins location includes a short video about the history of the mine as well as an additional map of the various historical sites along the Treadwell trail. I wanted to show how My Maps could be really used as a learning tool, so I also included links to more information about many of the sites.

I am From – Reuben Seidl


I am From… – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires;

Through this process of writing about where I am from and how influential “Place” may be, one key component sticks out. Place is fluid. There were several different origins and foundations that popped into my mind when I was trying to determine what I was going to focus on. I thought of the growth and knowledge and love from my family in Alaska. I felt the absence of understanding of my family in Indiana/Ohio. I envisioned fun times in Colorado and Spokane. The wide range of places that I thought of made me realize that I am not a product of one place, but rather many distinct Places.

The use of technology is becoming more and more prevalent in today’s world. One of our roles as educators is to prepare and expose our students to the materials and tools available so that they may have the greatest opportunity to succeed in this ever-changing world. I especially like technology that is multi-dimensional and easily manipulated.  Haiku Deck is a great example of the type of technology that I love. I fully intend to use this program to create presentations for new and difficult concepts that are often “sticking points” for students. I can only imagine how much straightforward the Citric Acid Cycle of DNA synthesis would have been with this program instead of having all the steps laid out on one or two pages.

 

My Alaska- E.P.


My Alaska – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

I have learned that… I have a lot to learn in terms of utilizing tools such as this for my classroom! I am someone steers away from technology when possible.;)  It was fun, it has kept the entire class occupied for over two hours and I can see how this is an amazing learning opportunity and activity for the classroom.  Allowing students a few different options to choose a way to creatively address a subject, giving them a set amount of time to accomplish the task and then providing a space to view their peers work in order to get ideas for the next activity.  Brilliant.

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